The Thane Central Jail on Friday became one of the handful jails in the State to start a library for their women inmates. The jail, housed in an 18th century Portuguese fort, only had a library for male inmates.
Rekha Charate, who is currently the librarian of Kirti College, Dadar, and has played a pivotal role in setting up the library, said: “This is among the few women’s libraries in prisons in Maharashtra.” In prisons, there is a complete segregation between men and women inmates.
“Earlier, women used to get about 15- 20 books from the men’s library, which would be given to the warden. They had no access to the library and they could not choose the books they wanted,” said Ms Charate, who is also doing her PhD thesis on prison libraries. “The library also did not have a selection of books keeping in mind women’s tastes and preferences,” she added.
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The library has nearly 500 books, in Marathi, Hindi and English. The Rotary Club of Shivaji Nagar was instrumental in collecting the books for this initiative.
Dr Nandini Deshmukh, president, Rotary Club of Shivaji Nagar, said, “We had made it clear that we wanted donations in the form of books and not money. We got a great response when we approached people and they were more than happy to donate.” The Rotary Club also approached Navneet Publications, which also donated a set of books for the initiative including Speak Well English, a book for to learn English.
Hiralal Jadhav, jail superitendent at Thane Central Jail, said, “This is a great initiative. The women now have access to a wide range of books. This will help them in their rehabilitation process. It will also help them spend get through the day.”
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While there is no reading room for the women, they can issue the books and take it to their respective cells. The current selection at the library includes self-help, fiction and non-fiction books. The Rotary Club is in the process of collecting more for this initiative. “We shouldn’t separate them from society because they committed a crime at some point. Books are the best form of rehabilitation.”
For Ms Charate, the work is not yet complete and is still in the process of setting up the library at the jail. “There is more to a library than just stocking books. I will be training some of the women inmates to run the library, and teach them how to sort and archive books,” she said.
The library was inaugurated by Dr Vijay Satbir Singh, Principal Secretary (Prison), Home Department.